1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium, for extracting representative images from image groups acquired by imaging a lumen of a living body.
2. Related Art
A technology has been known that extracts, as representative images, images having regions of interest such as abnormal regions from a group of a series of images (hereinafter referred to as intraluminal image group) acquired by imaging a lumen of a living body in time-series by using a medical observation apparatus such as an endoscope or a capsule endoscope. Observation on the representative images extracted from the image groups reduces a burden on users of observing a large quantity of images and enables the users to diagnose correctly and efficiently.
For example, JP 2011-24727 A discloses an image processing apparatus which detects the regions of interest from the intraluminal image groups acquired in time-series and classifies the regions of interest into groups based on features of the regions of interest and time-series positions of intraluminal images including the regions of interest. The image processing apparatus herein further selects representative regions from the regions of interest classified into each group and outputs images including the selected representative regions as the representative images.